Timorese fighter jail for militiaman murder
Timorese fighter jail for militiaman murder
DILI, East Timor (AP): A rights group on Friday welcomed the
conviction of an East Timorese independence fighter for murdering
a pro-Indonesian militiaman in the mayhem that engulfed East
Timor after it voted for independence in 1999.
The 7-year sentence handed down against Julio Fernandes, a
member of the country's main pro-independence guerrilla group
Falintil, will encourage ex-militia and refugees currently
sheltering in Indonesian West Timor to return home, said Joachin
Fonesca, a spokesman for East Timor's leading human rights
organization, Yayasan HAK.
"This case shows that the same standards apply to pro-
independence and pro-Indonesia supporters," Fonesca said.
An international court convicted Fernandes on Thursday of
killing militiaman Americo de Jesus Martins on Sept 25, 1999, in
Gleno, 50 kilometers from the capital Dili.
Fernandes is the first Falintil member to be convicted over
the violence that followed the United Nations-sponsored ballot in
which the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence
from Indonesia.
Last month, former militiamen Joao Fernandes was sentenced to
12 years imprisonment for murdering a pro-independence supporter
during the violence. About 70 other militiamen implicated in the
violence are in detention awaiting trial.
Falintil was set up as East Timor's army as the territory's
former Portuguese colonizers began departing in 1974. The
Indonesian military invaded soon thereafter, and for the next 24
years Falintil fought a guerrilla campaign to oust the
Indonesians.
After the UN-sponsored independence vote on Aug. 30, 1999,
Indonesian soldiers and their local militia auxiliaries went on a
rampage, killing hundreds of people. Much of the province was
destroyed.
International peacekeepers stopped the violence and most
militiamen fled to Indonesian-held West Timor. The United Nations
is administering East Timor during its transition to full
independence, expected next year.
On Thursday, the Dili District Court heard how Fernandes
stabbed de Jesus Martins to death in a Gleno marketplace after
being egged on by a pro-independence mob. The crowd had earlier
cut the militiaman's ears off and left him tied to a chair.
Presiding judge Sylver Ntukamazina from Burundi said the
punishment was meant to contribute to the process of
reconciliation in the territory. Lawyers for Fernandes said they
would appeal the verdict.
The trials are seen as an important step forward for East
Timor as it struggles to rebuild and bring to justice those
responsible for the devastation.
In a legal first for East Timor, UN prosecutors last month
filed multiple rape charges against an Indonesian army officer
and two anti-independence militia leaders.
The charges are the first by international prosecutors since
the war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia convicted three
Serbs for multiple charges of rape and sexual enslavement during
the Bosnian war.
It was the first time sexual enslavement was treated as a
crime against humanity.